FAQ: What are the news about Spanish?

Last week, the 8th International Congress of the Spanish Language was celebrated in Cordoba (Argentina). This is a forum where linguistic experts, writers, artists, institutions and other personalities gather together every three years in a different Spanish-speaking country.

They discuss about the state and the future of the Spanish language during some days. Spanishviaskype’s blog wants to bring you today a special FAQ article about the news of this congress that coincide on the questions that our students often make us.

1. What is DELE useful for?

Many students ask us this question when we say to them that we considered that they have reached one or another level. What if I try the DELE exam? Is it necessary to study or work in Spain? The Instituto Cervantes is the exclusive regulator for the official Spanish exams. However, they have not been able to achieve a consensus among Spanish universities and companies to set common linguistic requirements for foreign students or workers.

We can say that public universities don’t require students to have a certification. However, private ones can demand it. Traditionally, companies don’t specify the certification among their requirments if you read their job offers, but, obviously, it’s a way to stand out.

In consequence, we recommend you to take DELE exams if you want to get a good job or to study a master or a doctorate at a good university or just as a challenge for motivating yourself.

2. Is the Spanish language in fashion?

This is a recurrent concern for our students. They ask us if we think that the number of Spanish speakers will increase in the following years or, on the contrary, Chinese, Arabic or other languages will gain ground against Spanish.

One of the conclusions of the International Congress was the good health of the language. The English hispanist, Trevor Dadson, claimed that United Kingdom needs 4,000 Spanish teachers at this moment, 20,000 all around the world.

3. What’s going to happen with the inclusive language?

It couldn’t be otherwise. The discussion about gender was also present at the Congress. Some of the speakers agree with the need of an evolution towards more inclusive expressions; on the other hand, representatives of the official academies claimed that the language can’t evolve “by decree” but by use of the speakers. The options on the table are splitting the forms (todos y todas) or the use of a new morpheme to express a kind of neuter gender: e, x, y or @ are considered (todes, todxs, todys or tod@s).

It’s difficult for us to know which one of these options will success. Only one thing is clear: the choice will depend on the speakers, not on the institutions.

As you can see, it seems that the Spanish language is in good health at the moment, and all of the discussions around it only prove that it’s alive and evolving. If you want to be up to date on news about Spanish, don’t hesitate and learn Spanish via Skype with us. If you want to try a free trial lesson first, just tell us when would it be a good day and time for you.

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I was born in Badajoz (Extremadura) and I currently live in Bilbao (Basque Country). I studied a Bachelor degree in Spanish Language and Literature and an International House degree as a qualified teacher of Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language. I think languages are the key that opens the doors to new cultures and I love teaching mine.